The time to prepare for a crisis response is before one occurs. Use this collection of resources to assist with:
- Crisis management
- Crisis documentation
- Crisis communication
Consider compiling these resources and templates with local ones into a single document to serve as the crisis action plan.
Crisis Management
Proper crisis planning is essential for quick and effective management. In the chaos of a crisis, it's easy to forget essential duties. Assign all team roles ahead of time, including backup personnel and establish how to communicate with each other on the team. Train team members in their role(s) and cross-train them in other roles to eliminate structural collapse in the event of absent members. Remember, it is imperative to connect with senior leadership and the incident commander as soon as possible.
Learn how to set up a public affairs operations center to handle the public affairs functions related to a crisis by referencing During a Crisis: Public Affairs Operation Center. During a crisis, the emergency operations center team will coordinate travel to and from the incident scene with appropriate agencies. If you are assigned to the EOC, know your responsibilities and use the During a Crisis: Emergency Operations Center checklist to help ensure that you do not miss a task.
If the command establishes a crisis action team, public affairs professionals are needed at the CAT to help leadership identify and release information with maximum disclosure and minimum delay. Use the checklist found on During a Crisis: Crisis Action Team if you are assigned to the CAT. The CAT may also decide to establish a media operations center. The purpose of the MOC is to answer media questions and coordinate their movement to the crisis scene, medical recovery areas and other areas of interest. Use the checklist in During a Crisis: Media Operations Center to assist with the coordination and completion of all required MOC duties.
Upon a short-notice deployment to a crisis or emergency scene, leverage the During a Crisis: Establish and Transition Guide checklist to help you hit the ground running. This checklist helps you navigate tasks that need preparation and deploy an initial public affairs task force team, as well as transition to the relieving or ongoing team that follows.
If a crisis lasts more than a couple of days, conduct routine shift changes as needed. Ensure uniform, predictable and disciplined shift changes occur with the During a Crisis: Daily Shift Change checklist.
Crisis Documentation
During a crisis, you must remember to document essential information and answer all questions that must be answered. Prepare an initial accident/incident report in the first moments after a crisis occurs with the Crisis Accident/Incident Report template.
Communicating with leaders so they can make decisions is also part of your job. A situation report helps leaders make informed decisions in the organization's best interest. Write a SITREP with clear, concise and current data for the chain of command using the During a Crisis: Public Affairs SITREP template.
Keeping a record of everything that happens is also useful for updating the command, as well as retaining information for shift turnovers and assisting in the crisis investigation. Stay organized and record public affairs/visual information involvement with the During a Crisis: Events Log template.
If and when you are asked to support a sensitive site exploitation operation, you become a vital part of the investigation process. It’s your responsibility to capture a visual record of the initial scene and all physical evidence. Refer to Sensitive Site Exploitation Guide to help you document the scene appropriately.
Crisis Communication
Communicate essential information to the right people during a crisis using social media. Social media is an effective tool for facilitating communication quickly and directly with audiences. Choose the right platforms, stay calm and attentive and do your best not to increase panic with misinformation or delays. Review the information in During a Crisis: Initial Social Media Post Structure and During a Crisis: Social Media Strategy Guidelines to ensure effective use of social media.
Communicating with the media during a crisis is also critical. When interacting with the media, set expectations for behavior during the interaction and guidelines for releasing information. Use the rules found in Media Ground Rules Agreement and adapt them to cover your unit or installation-unique scenarios. Answering media queries requires thorough knowledge of how to field, document, research and respond to questions. The resources in the Media Query Essentials collection are designed to keep the media query process organized and appropriately aligned with the commander's intent.
The public affairs office often needs to hold a news conference in the event of a crisis. Prepare for and conduct a news conference with the News Conference Preparation Guide checklist. Also, refer to the News Conference Script template to help you create a document that ensures public affairs professionals and briefers know what to say.
Information can make or break a successful community correspondence. One great way to streamline the query process and provide continuity across messaging is to use a quick response sheet. A quick response sheet tracks updates and combines information, questions and answers throughout a crisis to aid public affairs professionals. Update and maintain public affairs posture/guidance, messages, and questions and answers for unified and timely responses with the During a Crisis: Quick Response Sheet template.